Devoted (Book Two, Caylin's Story)

by S. J. West

  “Why can't they help us?”

  “He said they have their own battle to face soon and they need to save their strength for what they will have to face. You and the Watchers can handle this one on your own.”

  “Will I ever see you again?”

  Will smiles. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I sincerely hope not.”

  I let out a small, half laugh. “Right. I would have to be almost dead for you to be allowed to come back, right?”

  Will nods. “Yes. So, although I would love to get to know you better, I’m afraid that would only happen if you were in a continual flux between life and death. I don’t think either of us want that.”

  “I would have to agree with you on that.”

  I walk the few steps to Will and give him a hug around the neck.

  “Thank you,” I tell him. “Thank you for saving me.”

  Will hugs me back. “You’re welcome. Now, go find your traitor before he can do any more harm. And show Lucifer that the women from the line of Lillith should never be messed with.”

  I pull back from Will and promise, “I will.”

  He nods to me as if to say he has faith that I’ll get the job done.

  Will phases and I’m left alone standing on the lakeshore.

  I look at the dagger in my hand and tighten my hold around the naked hilt.

  I feel an anger build up inside me and brace myself for the first thing on my list.

  Finding our traitor and making him pay.

  I phase to my home and find Aiden frantically pacing back and forth in the living room.

  He has me in his arms before I even have a chance to take a breath much less get a word out.

  “What happened?” He asks worriedly. “Where did he take you? What did he want with you?”

  I hug Aiden tightly around the waist before gently pushing him away from me.

  “Aiden, I love you more than life itself, but you need to let me go. We have work to do.”

  “Caylin,” Uncle Malcolm says to me, “what did Asmodeus want? And why are you all wet and holding one of the daggers?”

  My mother grabs the black wool blanket off the back of the couch in the living room and wraps me in it, rubbing my shoulders to help warm me up.

  “Did he hurt you?” My mother asks, and I can see her eyes go into mama bear mode.

  I know as soon as I tell her what Asmodeus did she’s going to want to go for his jugular. It’s what I’m counting on…

  I tell them about Asmodeus killing the lady in the bathroom of the baby store and being able to phase into my car. I tell them about him driving the Corvette off the old wood bridge near where my mom grew up and Will bringing me back to life.

  “Will?” My mom asks. “My Will?”

  I nod. “Yes. He told me that he would be watching over my descendants and me until the girl is born. He wasn’t able to stay long though, or I think he would have come to see you. He did tell me to tell you hello and that he thinks of you often.”

  I see my mother’s eyes tear up, but she doesn’t break down. “God chose a good protector for your family then.”

  “When the hell was Asmodeus allowed inside your car?” My dad asks, anger in his voice over the breach.

  “Good question,” I say, holding up the dagger in my hand. “Which brings us to this. How many people have access to these?”

  “Only a handful,” Andre says. “The Watchers you chose, Malcolm, Mason, and Jess.”

  I know it’s not Uncle Malcolm, Mason or Jess which only leaves the six Watchers I’ve chosen.

  Apparently, Uncle Malcolm comes to the same conclusion…

  Before I know it, he has Jered pinned up against a wall with his hand clamped tightly around the other man’s throat.

  “Was it you?” Uncle Malcolm demands harshly. “Did you let that son of a bitch get into her car when you drove it back here from the school last night? Did you do that to her studio?”

  Uncle Malcolm slams Jered’s head against the wall so hard it shakes the house.

  Jered could phase but he doesn’t. He just looks at Uncle Malcolm like he’s patiently waiting for my uncle to let his throat go so he can defend himself.

  “Uncle Malcolm,” I say, going up to him and touching him on the arm. “Let me talk to him.”

  I’m not quite sure Uncle Malcolm hears me until he releases his hold on Jered’s throat and takes a step back.

  I take hold of Jered’s arm and ask Jess’ bracelet what Jered feels in that moment.

  I feel an overwhelming sorrow and unworthiness. He doesn’t feel worthy enough to be one of my chosen. It’s something that I’ve known for a long time without the benefit of Jess’ bracelet. He feels sorrow for the loss of a child he once had, and there is a need to right the wrongs of his past. Not only for himself though. I sense he wants to help someone else as well.

  Tristan.

  He wants to help him find his way. He feels like he might have been given a second chance with Tristan. To provide him the guidance he never gave his own son.

  “Jered, did you help Asmodeus?” I ask directly.

  “No,” Jered is quick to reply.

  “He’s telling the truth,” I tell Uncle Malcolm.

  “You’re sure?” Uncle Malcolm asks me.

  “Yes. Positive.”

  I turn to face the others in the room and notice someone missing.

  “Where is Slade?”

  Everyone looks around because no one else noticed Slade phase out either.

  “He must have left when we were watching Malcolm attack Jered,” Desmond says.

  I look around for his phase trail and see it towards the back of the kitchen.

  “Where does his trail lead?” I ask those in the room because all I see is a pitch black void.

  “Hell,” Jered says, like maybe he’s been there before. “The one place none of us will follow him to.”

  “But when did he turn traitor?” Brutus asks. “He’s always been egotistical, but I never would have pegged Slade as a turncoat.”

  “I guess we’ll have to ask him,” Uncle Malcolm says, “if he ever has the nerve to show his face to us again.”

  “It doesn’t make any sense,” I say. “I never felt any danger from him. Jess’ bracelet never tried to warn me that he meant me any harm.”

  “Maybe he didn’t,” my dad says. “Maybe harming you wasn’t his primary motivation.”

  “But he did have the means and the opportunity to grant Asmodeus access to your car,” Uncle Malcolm says. “I wondered why he wanted to sit inside it when I was taking the governor off the other day.”

  “And he could have destroyed the studio at any time within the last few days,” Daniel points out.

  “But why did he glow to me during the choosing?”

  “We glowed?” Desmond asks in surprise. “I don’t remember you telling us that.”

  “I told Jered,” I admit, “but no I didn’t tell the rest of you. God told me you glowed to me because you were the ones who desired to help me the most.”

  “’Desired to help you the most’,” Uncle Malcolm repeats. “That could have been true for Slade even though he desired it for the wrong reasons. My guess is he’s been working with Lucifer for a while now. Maybe Lucifer has a hold over him that we don’t know about.”

  “Well, it doesn’t matter now,” Aiden says. “We know he’s the traitor. And he’ll pay for what he did one way or the other.”

  “I need this to end,” I say to everyone in the room, hearing the weariness in my own voice. “And I need it to end soon. I’m tired of having to look over my shoulder and wait for them to attack us. I’m sick of the dread I feel in the pit of my stomach because I never know what bad thing is going to happen next. Too many innocent people have given their lives for a war they know nothing about. We need to do something, and we need to do it now!”

  The room grows completely silent after my outburst. Everyone looks a little startled.

  “All righ
t then,” Uncle Malcolm finally says to break the tension, “I guess we need to come up with a plan.”

  “Maybe I can help with that.”

  We all look to see Tristan walk into the room holding hands with Mae.

  “What are you thinking?” Jered asks.

  “Let me help you set a trap,” Tristan says. “I can go back to my father and tell him whatever it is you want the others to know.”

  “Tristan,” I say, recognizing the sacrifice he’s about to make, “you don’t have to do that.”

  “Yes,” he says, “I do. You don’t know the things I’ve done in my life, Caylin. I need to start earning my own forgiveness, and this sounds like the perfect opportunity for me to start doing that. Let me help you.” Tristan looks down at Mae. “Let me help all of you be safe from them.”

  Uncle Malcolm calls Jess and Mason to come over so we can come up with a strategy to end this fight with the princes once and for all. I tell Jess God's rule about the other vessels not being involved in the fight. She doesn't look surprised.

  “He's always throwing in one obscure rule or another,” she quips.

  As our plan evolves, it turns out Tristan’s sacrifice is the key to everything.

  I just hope it works.

  Once our plan is set, I go up to my room to take a quick shower. When I make it back downstairs, Aiden is in the kitchen being tutored by my dad in another cooking lesson. I see Jess and Mason speaking with Uncle Malcolm and my mom at the dining table.

  “I don’t understand why you want me to come along on this little expedition of yours,” Uncle Malcolm says to them. “From the message God sent through Will, it sounds like you and the vessels are the ones who need to go handle this.”

  “I just think you’re meant to go there with us,” Jess tells him. “I keep seeing you in the dream.”

  “What dream, Jess?” I ask, coming to sit with them at the table.

  Jess sighs. “For the past year, I keep having the same dream every night,” she tells me. “Mason and I, along with the other vessels, are standing in the middle of New York City on the alternate Earth we went to after Faison went through the Tear. But, something bad has happened because a lot of the buildings are damaged, like there was an earthquake or something. I’m standing on a tall pile of rubble and looking up into the sky. The moon is blood red and it’s giving everything around us a red cast. I’ve always seen Malcolm standing with us, but I just assumed it was alt Earth’s version of him. Only, I could never understand why he was always holding a cane. After what’s happened, I think I was actually seeing our Malcolm, not theirs. I’ve always thought the dream was telling me to go back there and now with the message you got from Will I’m certain of it. I think they need our help.”

  “So you think they’re in trouble?” I ask.

  Jess nods. “Yes. And I don’t think I’ll stop having this dream until I go back.”

  “How are you going to go back?” My mom asks. “The Tear is sealed.”

  “It’s actually an idea Caylin came up with,” Mason says, looking at me. “We’re going to try to use the vessels inner realm to connect to their reality. We haven’t actually tried it yet to see if it will work, but I have no reason to believe it won’t. Obviously, we’re meant to go back there. I’m just not sure why.”

  “When are you going?” I ask.

  “We thought we would wait for Leah to get out for spring break,” Jess says.

  “You’re taking Leah back there? I don’t think she’s going to want to go back to that place, Jess.”

  “We’ll give her the option of not doing it,” Jess tells me. “But, there are people there she still cares about. I think if she knows they’re in trouble, she might want to go back to help them.”

  I know Jess is right. Leah will go back to alt Earth if she thinks those people need help. She’s just too good of a person to say no.

  “Excuse me,” Aiden says coming to stand by my chair. “Would you all mind if I borrowed Caylin for a moment?’

  “As long as you bring her back,” Uncle Malcolm quips.

  I stand from my chair and Aiden takes one of my hands into his, lacing our fingers together.

  “I will,” Aiden promises before phasing us to my studio.

  The paint in the room is dry now and we’re able to stand on the floor without having to worry about damaging Aiden’s field of lavender.

  He takes me into his arms as he leans his back against the worktable and buries his head against the right side of my neck.

  Aiden sighs heavily, and I can tell it’s a worried sigh.

  “Don’t take any unnecessary risks tomorrow,” he tells me.

  “I died and came back to life today, Aiden. I don’t think God’s going to let anything happen to me.”

  Aiden lifts his head and looks down at me.

  “And don’t let that give you a false confidence,” he warns. “You might be safe, but others around you don’t have an angel at the ready to bring them back to life.”

  “I know,” I say, fully realizing that fact. “I won’t take any unnecessary chances if you promise me the same thing.”

  “I won’t do anything that I don’t have to do,” he promises.

  I think of something and smile.

  “What’s making you smile like that, beautiful?” Aiden asks, having a hard time suppressing a smile of his own as he looks at me.

  “I just realized that after tomorrow, it’ll all be over. We can start to live our life together without having to worry about something bad happening to someone we love.”

  “I will do everything in my power to make sure the rest of your life is a happy one.”

  “Of course I’ll be happy. I’ll have you.”

  Apparently, these words earn me a kiss… or two…. or three….

  When we go back inside the house, Tristan is kneeling in front of Mae with Jered standing a short distance behind him.

  “I need to leave for a while, Mae.”

  “No.” Mae says. “You stay with me, Puppy.”

  Tristan grins. “Puppy needs to leave for a little while. But, I promise I’ll see you again one day.”

  Mae throws herself at Tristan, giving him no other choice but to hold her and give her one last hug.

  “Don’t leave,” she begs.

  I can see Tristan is having a hard time not getting emotional, but he pulls it together before he leans back from Mae enough to look into her tear-streaked face.

  “I’ll come back one day. I promise.”

  My dad goes over to them and picks Mae up into his arms as she begins to cry.

  “Good luck,” my dad says to Tristan. “And thank you.”

  Tristan nods and reaches out to touch Mae’s back one last time, but he seems to think better of it and lets his hand drop back down to his side. He turns to Jered and nods.

  Jered rests a hand on his shoulder and phases them away.

  “What do you think his father will do to him for his disobedience and leaving with Mae?” I ask.

  “You don’t want to know.”

  I look at Aiden.

  “Why? What’s going to happen? Do we need to bring him back?”

  “He made his own decision, Caylin. He knows what waits for him, and he’s willing to suffer through it.”

  “But I didn’t know he would be made to suffer,” I say, realizing I should have known. Maybe I just didn’t want to think about it because I was so desperate to have everything behind us.

  “They may be more lenient on him than they normally would be for being insubordinate. Especially if they believe he just came here to gather intel on us. I just hope he’s a good enough actor to make them believe what he says. But, maybe what Jered has to do will be enough to sell the story.”

  “What Jered has to do?” I ask, not having heard this part of the plan before now either. “What do you mean by that? I thought he was just going to take Tristan home.”

  “If Tristan shows up on his father’s doorstep without
any signs of being harmed, he’ll know something’s wrong.”

  “What is Jered going to do?”

  “He’ll make it look like he was beat up.”

  “How?”

  “By beating him up,” Aiden says, know I wouldn’t like his answer.

  “We should have found another way.”

  “There is no other way. This is our best shot to have them all attack at once. There’s no going back now, Caylin. We have to go through with the plan. The first step has already been taken.”

  I shiver slightly at the thought of what will happen to Tristan.

  I look over at Mae and see her heart wrenching tears spill freely from her eyes as she holds onto my father’s neck and cries over the loss of her ‘puppy’. With the full extent of Tristan’s sacrifice known to me now, I fully realize how much he must truly care for Mae.

  And I vow to make sure his sacrifice isn’t one made in vain.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  “Now, why do I feel like the sacrificial lamb being led to slaughter?” My Aunt Tara complains.

  “Uh, because we are?” Will asks.

  I slap Will playfully on the side of the head.

  “No one is being sacrificed here,” I say, handing Aunt Tara a cardboard box from the dining table filled with party supplies.

  “You two are just for show.”

  “And you won’t be alone,” Aiden tells Aunt Tara, walking up to me and placing an arm around my shoulders. “None of you will.”

  “So let me get this straight,” Aunt Tara says. “We’re going to the house in Colorado and acting like we’re decorating it for Lilly’s party. Is that about right?”

  “Yes,” I say. “It’s something we do every year so they won’t consider it odd or out of the ordinary. If Tristan was allowed to deliver his message last night, they’ll know when we’re supposed to be there, and that I will be there alone with the two of you.”

  “Won’t they know it’s a set up though? They can’t be that stupid,” Aunt Tara says.

  “We’re counting on them to know it’s a set up,” I say. “And we’re counting on them to bring everyone to the fight just like we are. That’s the whole point. We want to get this over and done with tonight.”